Mass Layoff Statistics

Mass Layoffs (Monthly) News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday, May 22, 2012 USDL-12-1018
Technical information: (202) 691-6392 * mlsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/mls
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
MASS LAYOFFS -- APRIL 2012
Employers took 1,388 mass layoff actions in April involving 135,600 workers,
seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance
benefits during the month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Each mass layoff involved at least 50 workers from a single employer. Mass
layoff events in April increased by 115 from March, and the number of associated
initial claims increased by 14,290. In April, 287 mass layoff events were
reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 33,243
initial claims. (See table 1.)
The national unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in April, little changed from
the prior month but down from 9.0 percent a year earlier. Total nonfarm payroll
employment increased by 115,000 over the month and by 1,816,000 over the year.
Table A. Six-digit NAICS industries with the largest number of mass layoff initial claims
in April 2012, private nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted
Industry April peak
Initial Claims Year Initial claims
School and employee bus transportation .... 20,482 2011 23,573
Temporary help services (1) ............... 10,285 2001 17,507
Food service contractors .................. 8,561 2011 10,948
Tax preparation services .................. 4,528 2010 6,514
Motor vehicle metal stamping .............. (2) 2012 (2)
Hotels and motels, except casino hotels ... 2,388 2010 4,130
Educational support services .............. 2,381 2012 2,381
Discount department stores ................ 2,301 2009 4,462
Motion picture and video production ....... 2,201 1997 15,908
Tire manufacturing, except retreading ..... (2) 2009 2,376
1 See the Technical Note for more information on these industries.
2 Data do not meet BLS or state agency disclosure standards.
Industry Distributions (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The number of mass layoff events in April was 1,421, not seasonally adjusted,
resulting in 146,358 initial claims for unemployment insurance. (See table 2.)
Over the year, the number of average weekly mass layoff events increased by 5
to 355, while associated average weekly initial claims decreased by 1,394 to
36,590. Ten of the 19 major industry sectors in the private economy reported
over-the-year decreases in average weekly initial claims, with the largest
decrease occurring in manufacturing. (See table 3.) In April, the six-digit
industry with the largest number of private nonfarm initial claims was school
and employee bus transportation. (See table A.)
In April, the manufacturing sector accounted for 19 percent of mass layoff
events and 23 percent of associated initial claims in the private economy.
Within manufacturing, the numbers of mass layoff claimants were highest in
food and in transportation equipment. Thirteen of the 21 manufacturing
subsectors experienced over-the-year decreases in average weekly initial
claims, with the largest decrease occurring in transportation equipment.
(See table 3.)
Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Among the census regions, the Northeast registered the largest number of
initial claims in April. Two of the 4 regions experienced over-the-year
decreases in average weekly initial claims, with the largest decrease
occurring in the Midwest. (See table 4.)
Among the states, California recorded the highest number of mass layoff
initial claims in April, followed by New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Illinois. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia experienced over-
the-year decreases in average weekly initial claims, led by Ohio, Kentucky,
Michigan, and Wisconsin. (See table 4.)
Note
The monthly data series in this release cover mass layoffs of 50 or more
workers beginning in a given month, regardless of the duration of the layoffs.
For private nonfarm establishments, information on the length of the layoff
is obtained later and issued in a quarterly release that reports on mass
layoffs lasting more than 30 days (referred to as "extended mass layoffs").
The quarterly release provides more information on the industry classification
and location of the establishment and on the demographics of the laid-off
workers. The monthly data series in this release are subjected to average
weekly analysis, which mitigates the effect of differing lengths of months.
See the Technical Note for more detailed definitions and for a description of
average weekly analysis.
____________
The Mass Layoffs news release for May is scheduled to be released on Wednesday,
June 20, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).

Technical Note
The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program is a federal-state program
that uses a standardized automated approach to identifying, describing,
and tracking the effects of major job cutbacks, using data from each
state's unemployment insurance database. Each month, states report on
employers which have at least 50 initial claims filed against them during
a consecutive 5-week period. These employers then are contacted by the
state agency to determine whether these separations lasted 31 days or
longer, and, if so, other information concerning the layoff is collected.
States report on layoffs lasting more than 1 month on a quarterly basis.
A given month contains an aggregation of the weekly unemployment
insurance claims filings for the Sunday through Saturday weeks in that
month. All weeks are included for the particular month, except if the
first day of the month falls on Saturday. In this case, the week is
included in the prior month's tabulations. This means that some months
will contain 4 weeks and others, 5 weeks. The number of weeks in a given
month may be different from year to year, and the number of weeks in a year
may vary. Therefore, data users who intend to perform analysis of over-the-year
change in the not seasonally adjusted series should use the average weekly
mass layoff figures displayed in tables 3 and 4 of this release. The average
weekly adjustment process produces a consistent series for each month across
all years, permitting over-the-year analysis to be performed using strictly
comparable data.
The MLS program resumed operations in April 1995 after it had been
terminated in November 1992 due to lack of funding. Prior to April 1995,
monthly layoff statistics were not available.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay
Service: (800) 877-8339.
Definitions
Average weekly mass layoff events and initial claimants. The number of
events and initial claimants in a given month divided by the number of weeks
contained within that month.
Employer. Employers in the MLS program include those covered by state
unemployment insurance laws. Information on employers is obtained from the
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, which is administered
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Industry. Employers are classified according to the 2007 version of the
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). For temporary help
and professional employers organization industries, monthly MLS-related
statistics generally reflect layoffs related to underlying client companies
in other industries. An individual layoff action at a client company can
be small, but when initial claimants associated with many such layoffs are
assigned to a temporary help or professional employer organization firm, a
mass layoff event may trigger.
Initial claimant. A person who files any notice of unemployment to
initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and
eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment
within a benefit year or period of eligibility.
Mass layoff event. Fifty or more initial claims for unemployment insurance
benefits filed against an employer during a 5-week period, regardless of
duration.
Seasonal adjustment
Effective with the release of data for January 2005, BLS began publishing
six seasonally adjusted monthly MLS series. The six series are the numbers of
mass layoff events and mass layoff initial claims for the total, private nonfarm,
and manufacturing sectors.
Seasonal adjustment is the process of estimating and removing the effect
on time series data of regularly recurring seasonal events such as changes
in the weather, holidays, and the beginning and ending of the school year.
The use of seasonal adjustment makes it easier to observe fundamental changes
in time series, particularly those associated with general economic expansions
and contractions.
The MLS data are seasonally adjusted using the X-12-ARIMA seasonal adjustment
method on a concurrent basis. Concurrent seasonal adjustment uses all available
monthly estimates, including those for the current month, in developing seasonal
adjustment factors. Revisions to the most recent 5 years of seasonally adjusted
data will be made once a year with the issuance of December data. Before the data
are seasonally adjusted, prior adjustments are made to the original data to adjust
them for differences in the number of weeks used to calculate the monthly data.
Because weekly unemployment insurance claims are aggregated to form monthly data,
a particular month's value could be calculated with 5 weeks of data in 1 year and
4 weeks in another. The effects of these differences could seriously distort the
seasonal factors if they were ignored in the seasonal adjustment process. These
effects are modeled in the X-12-ARIMA program and are permanently removed from
the final seasonally adjusted series.